15 October 1826

I hope you received a
letter which I forwarded you by Major Dix on the 1st of June &
which I conclude reached you about a little before I had the comfort of
receiving yours from the hands of Mr Huoly after a tedious passage
of 52 days I needed comfort at the time for I was again in hourly apprehension th
of seeing Eliza draw her last painful gasp. Another very severe attack came on
in July and another powerful Salivation has again relieved her. Yet it is but a
change of suffering – from the greater to the less certainly – she can now
again lie down at night, can walk from room to room by day but her teeth are
loosened & her mouth so sore she can only receive spoon meat – what is
worse medical men think it is only suspension not cure. We have a kind
& zealous friend in one of the most eminent physicians of New York, &
to his skill I think I owe her present existence. What a life of suffering has
been mine & how am I, if it must be so, to bear her loss & to toil
& struggle for her helpless orphans! Yet with all my reason tells me I have
to fear, I still revive to hope as soon as the violent symptoms abate. And I
keep my health my strength & activity of body & mind. Is it not
wonderful. Ah my dear Mary how dreary it is for us to look back on our past lives
and how desolate the future. [Greatly do] we need the faith of a better existence
to enable us to support the miseries entailed on this.

I am still also
stemming a torrent of pecuniary difficulties. Not one shilling can I get from
the West Indies. I have lately sent out new powers legalized by the British
Consul here appointing fresh agents – as a last effort. I can do nothing more
unless I go myself, & the state of the family renders that measure
impossible. I am convinced too I should never return. I grow yearly more
impatient under heat – A hot day renders me a useless log & I dread it more
than a whole winter in Spitzbergen. Could I collect from Barbadoes, Antigua,
Demarary & Tortola the debts owing me I should not fear our eventual great
success.

Your admirable essay is still in
my hands I have had no time to see the publishing booksellers for I have not a
moment I can call my own except at night[.] I sent it to the keeper of a
circulating library who has published some of Mrs Sherwoods books
& he sent it back saying it was well written but the female High School had
already adopted all the principles & commenced the practice[.] The first
holliday we give I will go out & try for information how best to dispose of
it2

You must consider
this letter as a sort of morning call. It goes by a Mr Whitfield from Barbadoes who
sails early tomorrow morning, & this is late on Sunday evening. My eyes are
so much affected by candle light. Mr W. will make some stay at
Liverpool so you perhaps will not get the letter before Christmas. I have
charged him not to forward it as it cannot be worth postage. Let me hear
from you. We shall never meet more in this weary pilgrimage I fear & will
our spirits carry recognition of mundane friendships into eternity? I hope so,
and that it will then be enjoyed without the alloys of separation & all
other painful & destructive contingencies.

Make my regards to Mrs
Lanfear I regret that her work has not
crossed the Atlantic.3

2 It appears Hays wrote at least one more work after her Memoirs of Queens in 1821 for publication, and Fenwick had a copy of it in New York, but whether it was ever published and under what appellation, if any, remains unknown. Works of a similar topic that appeared the following year in New York were not by Hays, but they include Letters on the Improvement of the Mind: Addressed to a Lady, by Mrs. Chapone. A Father's Legacy to his Daughters, by Dr. Gregory. A mother's advice to her absent daughters, with an additional letter, on the management and education of infant children, by Lady Pennington (New York: Samuel Marks, 1827); and Observations on the Importance of Female Education, and Maternal Instruction, with their beneficial influence on society(New York: Mahlon Day, 1827), by Abigail Mott and James Mott. The other reference above is to Mary Martha Sherwood (1775-1851), a prolific writer for children at this time in Great Britain, publishing some 400 titles in her lifetime.

3 This reference seems odd, given Lanfear's death the previous year. It is possible Hays had not written back to Fenwick during that time, or if she did, she did not mention the loss of her sister. Clearly in some earlier communication between Hays and Fenwick, Hays had mentioned the publication in 1824 of Lanfear's second volume, Letters to Young Ladies on Their Entrance into the World, a conduct book that would receive a wide circulation, far more than her 1819 novel Fatal Errors.